Woman starved

Barry County Coroner Jim Fohn said an autopsy completed on the body of Charity Ann Coscia, of Seligman, shows that she died of malnutrition.

"She just wouldn't eat," said Fohn. "She had a history of this."

Fohn said he was not sure if Coscia had been diagnosed as anorexic.

"It is true that she hadn't been checked on for up to six weeks," said Fohn. "Why he (Coscia's father, Peter Coscia) didn't check on her is beyond me."

On Jan. 21, the body of Charity Coscia was found in the Seligman home of her father after her brother, Scott Coscia, of Purdy, called the sheriff's department to report a foul odor in the home.

"Scott said he had called to check on his sister earlier in the month and his father said she was fine," said Barry County Sheriff Mick Epperly. "That obviously was not the case."

Epperly is unsure why Peter Coscia failed to report the death of his 28-year-old daughter.

"I've never seen a case like this before," said Epperly. "You just can't not know that someone has died in your home.

"He just said that she was a loner and stayed by herself a lot," said Epperly. "We believe that is true after looking at her room. We know she had some medical issues."

According to Epperly, investigators are currently collecting phone and medical records to determine if any charges should be filed related to Charity Coscia's death.

"You can charge someone with abandonment of a corpse, but he didn't leave the body. He was still living in the home," said Epperly. "You can charge them with concealment of a corpse, but that really isn't the case here.

"You can also charge someone with leaving a corpse without promptly reporting it to law enforcement," said Epperly. "That is probably what we are looking at."

Note: The nature of the Internet makes it impractical for our staff to review every comment. If you feel that a comment is offensive, please Login or Create an account first, and then you will be able to flag a comment as objectionable. Please also note that those who post comments on cassville-democrat.com may do so using a screen name, which may or may not reflect a website user's actual name. Readers should be careful not to assign comments to real people who may have names similar to screen names. Refrain from obscenity in your comments, and to keep discussions civil, don't say anything in a way your grandmother would be ashamed to read.